Biography
William Albertson was a Communist Party organizer arrested in Michigan on August 17, 1951 and removed to Pittsburgh for the western Pennsylvania Smith Act case. A jury convicted him on August 20, 1953, and the court sentenced him to five years in prison on August 25. He remained on bail during the appeal. The Supreme Court set aside the conviction in 1956 because the prosecution had suppressed evidence bearing on the credibility of paid informer Joseph Mazzei, and the government later abandoned the case.
National Guardian, October 19, 1953, national page 16: William Albertson and Irving Weissman were reported to have completed sixty-day contempt terms October 18, but would remain detained until $20,000 Smith Act bonds were supplied. The Committee for Constitutional Bail was seeking funds. Completion of the contempt term is not physical discharge, and the report supplies no endpoint for continued detention or exact contempt admission date. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/national-guardian/1953-10-19-5-52-nat-guardian.pdf
